Monday 3 February 2014 12.20 EST
First published on Monday 3 February 2014 12.20 EST

Not everyone will completely grasp the meaning of the sculptures of Richard Deacon but that's all right, the artist has said on the eve of a retrospective of his work at Tate Britain. "I don't think there is ever someone who 'gets' it. I don't get it particularly … I hope people get pleasure from the work."

Deacon, who was the fourth winner of the Turner prize back in 1987, is one of the UK's most important sculptors from a generation that includes Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor, Alison Wilding and Bill Woodrow.

Around 40 works of varying sizes and using all manner of materials – including wood, metal, cardboard, ceramics, rubber, chrome, leather and marble – are included in the show that opens to the public on Wednesday.

The show's curator, Clarrie Wallis, described Deacon as a "hugely important" figure and "one of the leading sculptors of his generation".

Wallis said the exhibition showed how throughout his career Deacon pushed and challenged the materials he used and ended up making work "that doesn't look like anything else".

Deacon has frequently called himself a "fabricator", in that he makes things in which he places an emphasis on the construction and the manipulation of materials. The sculptures are abstract, but hopefully not threatening, he said. "What is the meaning? There isn't a straightforward answer to that question. But it's not meaningless."

The works often have titles which are indicative and descriptive – Lock, for example, or Mammoth or Fold, the title of a 12-tonne, 4m high ceramic sculpture which has been installed in the public entrance space outside the show and looks from the distance like a giant folding screen. There are many which are far more enigmatic, such as Struck Dumb, a large bulbous steel structure that was made by a team of Govan shipyard metalworkers.

Deacon said he had no message as such. "There's a huge range of understandings about the way people approach work. There are people who appreciate it on the level of its material qualities and people who talk about it in relation to other issues."